Musical Showdowns

Watch the Cast of How I Met Your Mother Get a Much-Deserved Standing Ovation for This Les Misérables Duet

This isn’t the first time Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel have sung Les Misérables together. Years ago, when How I Met Your Mother was only in its second season and the Oscar was just a twinkle in Anne Hathaway’s eye, the two actors confessed that they liked singing “The Confrontation” on set. The video of them talk-singing at each other went viral and that was that. Until, eight years later, during an episode of Inside The Actor’s Studio this week, an audience member asked Segel and Harris to have another crack at Javert and Jean Valjean’s famous showdown. In a rare occurrence, the sequel outshines the original. (In fact, don’t tell Russell Crowe, but this version might be even better than what he and Hugh Jackman did.) Anyway, you decide for yourself if this performance is worthy of the wild applause it received. I think so, if only for the massive amount of enthusiastic Segel spittle that made Cobie Smulders duck out of the way. Remind me again why How I Met Your Mothernever had a full musical episode?